THE Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development aims to increase applications for the Bantuan Ibu Bersalin (BIB) assistance scheme from the current 83 per cent recorded in 2025 to at least 90 per cent through expanded digitalisation initiatives.
Its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the ministry continues to leverage digital innovation to strengthen child and family-centred service delivery across the state.
“This is to ensure more eligible mothers receive timely and meaningful assistance,” she said in her ministerial winding-up speech during the DUN sitting today.
Fatimah said since its introduction, the BIB initiative has supported 100,056 mothers throughout Sarawak.
She added that beginning Apr 15 this year, BIB payments have been channelled through SPay Global to improve efficiency, speed and transparency.
“The process from application to payment has now been reduced from three months to just two weeks,” she said.
According to her, the initiative also helps address challenges faced by mothers without bank accounts, those unable to open accounts and underage mothers.
Meanwhile, she said SeDidik has also achieved a major milestone in its digital transformation journey with the rollout of the MySeDidik application across all 107 SeDidik centres statewide since January this year.
The integrated platform includes modules such as contactless attendance, activity feeds, lesson plan management, integrated parent-teacher communication, assessment systems and simplified billing.
“As of May 12, a total of 5,975 out of 6,059 parents and guardians, or 99 per cent, have utilised MySeDidik to monitor their children’s attendance, daily activities and developmental progress,” she said.
Fatimah said the initiative has strengthened transparency and trust between parents and educators while supporting a more connected and child-centred early childhood education ecosystem.
She also highlighted the expansion of the TOY8 Early Developmental Screening Programme, which began as a pilot initiative in 2023 through collaboration with a Japan-based company and support from the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation.
To date, 95 teachers have been trained and 635 children screened under the programme, with 82 identified as having developmental red flags. Of those, 70 children entered intervention programmes, while 12 have successfully transitioned into mainstream primary education.
Fatimah said the programme will be expanded across all SeDidik centres this year, targeting 140 trained teachers and screening for 1,800 children aged between three and five years old.
